Chapter Eight
POV
Alpha King
The Night He Came
The night she called to me; she didn't even know she was calling.
Far away, across an ocean and under a foreign sky, my name moved through her heart like a whisper.
I felt it, sharp and electric, stirring the beast within me.
For years, I had watched her in dreams-her laughter, her fear, her stubborn will. But tonight, the veil thinned. Her fear was real. Her pulse reached me through the dark, and I came.
The office lights flickered as Mira closed her laptop. It was far past closing time, yet she lingered, pretending to review one last report.
The others had long gone; their chatter and perfume had vanished with the fading daylight. The hum of the air conditioner was the only sound left-steady, lonely, almost comforting.
'Outside, the city slept under a moon too pale to care. Florida's humid night air pressed against the windows, carrying the distant echo of traffic and waves.
Mira adjusted her scarf, clutching her bag to her chest as if it could protect her from the silence.
Every evening felt the same now-empty, but not peaceful. She had grown used to feeling watched.
At first, she told herself it was imagination.
The lingering echo of the strange dreams she'd been having since Abuja-the ones filled with gold eyes, thunderous growls, and the heavy scent of rain-soaked earth.
'But lately, the air itself had begun to hum with that same energy. Like the night was alive. Like he was near.
She shook off the thought and stepped outside.
The streets stretched ahead, lonely, silver-lit, beautiful in a way that only danger could be. Her heels tapped against the pavement, the sound bouncing between the buildings like a heartbeat.
Halfway down the street, she heard another heartbeat.
'Footsteps.
At first faint, then louder. Deliberate.
Her fingers tightened around her bag. Not tonight, she thought.
'Please, not tonight.
She turned, quick and sharp. Two men emerged from the shadows; lean, grinning, with the rough confidence of predators who had done this before. One wore a dark cap pulled low; the other flicked open a knife that caught the streetlight.
"Pretty girl," the one with the cap said, his tone oily. "You walking alone?"
Mira swallowed. "Please.... just keep your distance."
They laughed. "We're just talking. Why so scared?"
She began walking faster, heart thundering, but their steps matched hers. Her phone trembled in her hand as she tried to unlock it. "If you come any closer."
"What will you do, eh?" The other one sneered.
"Call your boyfriend? Where is he?"
Her breath caught. Where are you? she thought wildly, almost as if sending the thought into the wind.
'She never knew she was calling unto him!
She never thought, her fear is a trigger to his beast!
'Then-something shifted!
A gust of wind rushed through the street, sharp as a warning. The temperature dropped, the air thickened, and the palm leaves rattled like drums before a storm.
'The smell hit next-earthy, wild, heavy with rain.
The men looked around, confused.
From the darkness behind them, a growl cut through the air...low, deep, primal. It wasn't a dog. It wasn't human.
"What the hell was that?" one muttered.
'Bob I hope, it's not what am thinking!
With wide eyes, trying to see what's coming; but the second responded.
"Bobbbb!
The second stepped back. "Man, let's go. Something's wrong".
"Too late".
'He stepped out of the shadows.
Tall. Broad-shouldered. Power cloaked him like armor. His golden eyes burned in the darkness, ancient and unrelenting.
'Mira gasped'. It was him. The man from her dreams. The one who haunted her soul.
'How can this be possible?
'How come he is here?
'Is he stocking me?
'She was lost to her thoughts- and never knew, she had summon him!
The attackers froze, unable to move.
"I can't believe this; one of them whisper!
Bob's eyes is on 360%, looking for the nearest exit.
'The Alpha King's gaze sliced through them like a blade. When he spoke, his voice rumbled through the air. "Leave."
They didn't hesitate. One dropped the knife; the other tripped over himself fleeing down the street.
"This is horrible,' Bob said; as they flew with all their strength.
Silence fell again; thick, humming, charged.
Mira's lips trembled.
"You… followed me?"
He turned to her slowly, the gold in his eyes softening, but only barely.
"I never left you."
Her pulse fluttered. "You're not real. You can't be."
He took one step forward. The air around him shimmered faintly, as though the world itself bent to let him through.
"And yet, here I stand."
She wanted to run, but her legs betrayed her. The same invisible thread that had bound her in dreams now pulled her closer in the flesh.
' How can you do this? Being in my dreams and now standing before me!
"Why are you here?" she whispered. "Why now?"
He studied her for a long, aching moment. "Because tonight, your fear reached me.
'You called, even without words.
'You belong to me, Mira.
"Across oceans. Across lifetimes."
Her eyes filled with tears. "You can't say that.
You don't know what I've lost to get here.
I left everything behind-my family, my past, my nightmares."
"And yet," he murmured, brushing a tear from her cheek with his thumb, "your heart still beats to my name."
His touch burned.
'The scent of him filled her senses-earth, storm, and a faint trace of something ancient. She shivered, not from fear but recognition.
"You think this is love?" she whispered. "It's madness."
He smiled then, the kind of smile that carried both tenderness and danger.
"Madness is what binds souls that defy time.
'You can pretend to forget me!
"Mira, but your spirit remembers."
A single tear slipped down her face. "You're real," she breathed, disbelief breaking into wonder.
"I am." His voice softened. "And you, my queen, are waking up."
Behind them, the night deepened. The city seemed to fade, replaced by a faint rumble of thunder far across the ocean; as if two worlds were meeting through her heartbeat.
Mira stepped back, shaking her head.
"I don't understand what's happening to me."
"You will," he promised. "But not here."
Her eyes lifted to his. "Then where?"
He offered his hand. "Where your truth begins."
For a heartbeat, the world stilled. The night around them shimmered. When her trembling fingers brushed his palm, the streetlights flickered; and suddenly, she was no longer standing in Florida.
The scent of the city was gone. The air was cool, rich with the smell of rain and pine.
She heard wolves howling in the distance.
Her breath hitched. "Where… are we?"
He turned his golden gaze toward the horizon, where a dark castle rose against the blood-red moon.
"Home," he said quietly. "My world. Our world."
And as the wind carried the sound of wolves calling her name, Mira realized this was not the end of her running.
It was the beginning of everything she had been running from and toward.